Plenty of backyard birdwatchers consider blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata) the villains of the avian world. Mark Twain best summarized anti-blue jay sentiment when he compared the bird’s…
The Outside Story
Are Brighter Monarchs Better Flyers?
The September before my daughter was born, my husband and I went for our last pre-baby hike around Camel’s Hump. We stopped for a snack on the ridgeline, and as we sat munching granola…
Brainwashed by Worms
Some of my favorite children’s books describe life cycles as heroic tales of persistence and redemption. From The Ugly Duckling to The Very Hungry Caterpillar to A Seed is Sleeping,…
Garter Snakes Can Be Surprise Guests
One summer day I lifted the black plastic top of our composter and jumped back, startled – a large snake was curled up on top of the compost. The yellow stripe down the center of its…
Amphibians Aglow
The living light of bioluminescent organisms like fireflies, anglerfish, and marine plankton is legendary. The dazzling light shows put on by synchronous fireflies in Great Smoky Mountains…
The Kingfisher and the Mussel
Last July, Rich Kelley posted a most unusual photograph to the Vermont Birding Facebook group with the caption, “Someone bit off more than he could chew.” The photo, taken in the…
Butterflies Sip Sweet Nectar
Recently I saw a beautiful orange butterfly speckled with black – a great spangled fritillary – feeding on orange hawkweed in a meadow. I observed it through binoculars, so as not…
Red-bellied Woodpeckers Move North
I first became acquainted with my neighborhood red-bellied woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) when it visited my bird feeders last winter. Sporting a black-and-white-striped back with a…
Exploring a Swamp
There was a sucking sound as my rubber boot sank into the deep black muck. Naturalist Jon Binhammer and I were standing in the middle of a hardwood swamp in central Vermont. Above us, dainty…
Sweat Bees: Diminutive and Diverse
As you swat away blackflies this summer, look closely; it may be that not all those flies are flies. Some of them might be tiny sweat bees, members of the Halictidae family, which gets its…
Muskrats: Swimming Through Summer
We were touring the neighborhood backroads one summer evening when the kids noticed a sleek movement through a small pond. At first, we thought it was a beaver, but its smaller size and…
Fascinating Fishing Spiders
Large fishing spiders walking on water can be fascinating – or terrifyingly unnerving. The latter reaction is common among Saint Michael's College students as we sample…
Broad-winged Hawks: Secret Nesters
Each fall, thousands of broad-winged hawks soar across the New England sky in flocks known as kettles, on their way to wintering grounds in South and Central America. The sky swirls with hawks…
Of Drumlins and Erratics
There’s a story about an early tourist from New York City who stopped his horse and buggy to watch a farmer harvesting a spring crop of rocks from his land. The farmer was loading rocks…
The Oriole Nest
I grew up on a street lined with tall, stately elms. While walking to school one day, I found a bird’s nest that the wind had blown down. The nest was a beautiful, silky gray pouch. My…
Spider Eyes Are Watching You
Many of us avoid close encounters of the eight-legged kind, but if you’ve ever come eye to eye with a spider, you’ve probably noticed they have several more eyes than we do: most…
Star-nosed Mole: a Nose that Knows
Some people have life birds, species of birds they’ve waited their whole lives to see in the wild. I don’t have one of these, but I do have a life mole. I’ve been waiting to…
Trillium: A Beauty of the Spring Woods
Once, when I was little, I was so thrilled to come across a gorgeous, dark-red trillium that I picked it and placed it in a vase in the house. I was disappointed when it quickly wilted. Not…
Bats Emerge From Hibernacula
As spring arrives, so do… bats? Like many other naturalists, I spend lots of time during this season looking for migrating salamanders and blossoming bloodroot. I’ve never thought…
The Varied (and Not-So-Shrinking) Violet
One of the first spring wildflowers you’ll see – perhaps even before the last shaded patches of snow disappear – is the violet. This common flower, which blooms from April…